“Take a deep breath and relax. Bill and I have this,”
David said and then called the play.
Bill had played the decoy all game because Colorado knew he was David’s favorite target. They’d been playing games where two and sometimes three defenders would box Bill in. On this play, Bill was going vertical.
As David dropped back, he laughed aloud when Bill showed his man his hip like he was doing a down-and-out.
Then he did a stutter step and exploded past the defender.
David used to joke in high school that his teammate Ty Wilson would make amazing moves to mystify defenders. It was like when you smashed all the buttons on your Xbox controller. Bill had just done his own version of that.
What surprised them both was that his defender wasn’t fooled; he was running step-for-step with Bill. It had confused the defender’s help, though, leaving Bill one-on-one for the first time all game. David knew that if he lofted it up and threw a fifty-fifty ball, Bill would likely come down with it. But this time, he underthrew the ball because he saw the defender was intent on watching Bill and hadn’t looked back. Bill suddenly put on the brakes, causing the other guy to fly by him. He caught the ball and avoided his defender to score on a sixty-nine-yard pass, giving USC
their first lead at 14–7.
With two minutes to go in the half, USC had the ball again. As they trotted out onto the field, David turned to Bill.
“Be ready. I’m coming to you again.”
Bill grinned like an idiot, relishing the challenge of besting their rivals.
Bill did a down-and-out on the first play to gain fifteen yards and get the Trojans to midfield. On the next play, he found a hole in their zone that David rifled a pass into, despite what was essentially double coverage. They were now on the ten-yard line.
David walked down the field and looked to the sideline, where he got the next play.
“Line up! Line up!” he barked.
“Z 98! Z 98! Hike!” David called out.
Bill ran a slant and had his defender hanging on him, but David threw it anyway. Bill caught it and fell into the end zone.
The crowd erupted. It was the loudest David had ever heard it in Memorial Coliseum. He ran downfield, and he and Bill leaped at each other to do a chest bump.
“You’re the man!” David yelled as they headed to the sideline.
◊◊◊
Coach Thomas handed David the stats for the first half.
The Buffaloes’ offense had just 30 total yards before their touchdown play went 49 yards untouched for the game’s first points early in the second quarter. USC had zero net yards rushing.
It looked like Colorado’s Achilles’ heel was their secondary. Otherwise, both defenses had played well.
“What do you think the issue is with the running game?”
David asked.
“Well, there are a couple of problems. The running backs aren’t running as ‘smart’ as they did last year. It also seems that Marcus is going down much easier. That could be due to his early-season injury. When he gets beyond the line of scrimmage, he stumbles after minimal contact; if Marcus kept his feet, he’d be scoring a touchdown.
“For the offensive line, it’s fundamentals like footwork.
The receivers are also not blocking downfield as they should. Both of these we can fix with coaching. And then there’s the issue of me not allowing you to run—and the defense knows that,” Coach Thomas said, surprisingly forthcoming.
“What do you want me to do in the second half?” David asked.
“We’re up 21–7. I don’t need any heroics. All we need you to do is be a game manager and close this thing out,”
Coach Thomas said.
The only response David gave was his eyebrows rose a fraction. From Coach Thomas’s point of view, he could see
that they just needed to eat up the clock and let their defense keep Colorado in check for the win. It might not be the kind of ball David preferred to play, but if he wanted to get in for the Notre Dame game, he would do as asked.
When the second half started, Colorado got the ball first, and six plays later had to punt. USC did a bit better, but they also punted. For once, Knackers’ replacement kicked one out of bounds at the ten-yard line.
USC’s defense pushed them back two yards on the first play. Colorado tried a short pass to the tight end crossing over the middle on third and twelve. The ball was tipped, and Todd was able to pick it off and run it back for the score.
With the game all but out of reach at 28–7, Colorado lost some of their spirit until the fourth quarter started. David watched as the Buffaloes put together a twenty-play drive that lasted nearly eight minutes. The sad part was USC had two defensive linemen go down with injuries.
With a bit over six minutes left in the game, Colorado made the score 28–14.
Colorado tried an onside kick, which the Trojans recovered on the forty-eight-yard line. Seven plays later, Alex kicked a thirty-eight-yard field goal.
With new life, Colorado scored one last time with under two minutes to go to make the final 31–20 as they failed on their two-point conversion attempt.
USC recovered the onside kick and forced Colorado to use their last time-out. When the Trojans got the first down, it was over. David kneeled down three times to run out the clock.
David had passed the ball 35 times and completed 18 for 283 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception. USC
as a team had rushed the ball for only 35 yards. Bill had 6
catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns.
The Trojans improved to 13–0 all-time versus Colorado and collected their nineteenth straight home win, the
second-longest streak in FBS.
They were now in control of the division. If they took care of business in Utah, the most challenging part of their conference schedule would be behind them.
When they got into the locker room, Coach Merritt’s parting comment was, “A win makes all our problems go away for 24 hours. Next week, we collect some road kill.
Now go out and enjoy tonight, but be smart about it.”
◊◊◊
As he was getting dressed, Bill and Amari sat down to talk to him.
“Good game,” Amari said as his smile broadened with approval.
“You did good, Brother,” Bill added.
David wondered what they were up to with half anticipation and half dread.
“What do you want?”
“Told you that wouldn’t work,” Bill said.
“It was worth a try,” Amari agreed. “We need your help.”
“Okay,” David drawled.
“We’re hosting two recruits, and Bryant said we should talk to you about what to do with them tonight. Our plan was to go to the football apartments, where there will surely be a party,” Armani said hopefully.
David’s nose scrunched up with concern.
“What’s wrong with that? That’s what I did on my recruiting weekend,” Bill said, acting annoyed.
“And what happened?” David asked.
“I got drunk and almost missed my meetings on Sunday,”
Bill admitted.
“I puked in my hotel room, and my mom threatened to take me home and miss the rest of the weekend. Luckily, my dad talked her out of it,” Amari said.
David nodded and asked, “Remember what we did for my recruiting weekend?”
Bill thought about it for a moment before looking up with a smile.
“You invited us all to a party at Zak Verwood’s,” he said and then turned to Armani. “He’s an actor David knows. It was at his mansion, and it was epic.”